BUBO Listing News
We are delighted to have been awarded 'Website of the month' in the June issue of Birdwatch Magazine.
See the magazine for the write-up. They conclude by saying "as more and more birders add on their individual lists, this will become a fascinating and compelling site to visit". So thanks to all those birders who have already added lists, and please continue to add lists and encourage your fellow birders to join the BUBO Listing community!
BUBO Listing now has the ability to create one list based on copying an existing list. This makes it much quicker to enter additional lists once you have your first list created. For example, if you have created your British Life List via the normal checklist entry method, you could then create a copy of it as your Norfolk county list. This will copy all records across to your Norfolk county list, leaving you with just the task of deleting (or updating) any invalid records, e.g. species only seen outside of Norfolk.
The feature also allows you to copy lists across authorities, e.g. create your UK400 life list based on a copy of your BOU life list. You would then need to add (via 'Add Species to List') those records where taxonomy and acceptance varies between BOU and UK400.
This can be quite a complex feature, so please read the detailed instructions and examples under 'Creating A List'.
The 'Copy List' feature is available as an option on the 'Create New List' page when logged in.
As usual, if you have any comments please Contact Us.
It is now possible to view the complete species lists for each of the supported authorities. This also includes notes added by BUBO Listing to provide extra detail behind taxonomic decisions and acceptable records. See the species lists section.
The Latest List Update feature has been very well-received since BUBO Listing launched. It is especially ideal for keeping an eye on what is being added to people's year lists! We have now enhanced this to provide a history of recent updates: just select the View Latest Updates option from the user menu when logged in.
BUBO Listing is a new approach to an old activity; comparing birding lists. Whilst frowned upon by the more serious-minded, bird listing is as vibrant, active and exciting as ever. Put two birders in a room together and before too long they'll know if the other saw the 2006 Long-billed Murrelet in Devon!
There have been a number of attempts to enable comparison of lists on the internet, some local and others at the national level or wider. Whilst all have positive sides, they all have disadvantages too. BUBO Listing is an attempt to provide a free, flexible and widely used site for the comparison of birding lists. The more people that use BUBO Listing, the better it will become for all users. Anyone can view all lists without logging in but if you wish to enter your own lists you need to register an account.
Advantages of BUBO Listing
- BUBO Listing is free.
- BUBO Listing is immediate. As soon as you update your list, it is there for the world to see.
- BUBO Listing has no elitist threshold - you can enter a list of a single bird upwards and do not need to be a top twitcher to benefit.
- BUBO Listing is entirely transparent - you can view anything submitted by anyone else.
- BUBO Listing is very flexible in the types of lists submissible (e.g. life, year, county/state, self-found), whilst also retaining sufficient structure to enable meaningful comparison of lists.
- BUBO Listing's data entry is fast and easy so it is little effort for you to input and update lists.
- BUBO Listing uses the most appropriate checklists for each location, so you can use IOC or Clements for World lists, ABA for USA, BOU for Britain etc.
- You can create a list for any location worldwide*, even down to your own garden or back yard!
- BUBO Listing puts you in charge of your lists. No-one will be making decisions about what you can and can't count.
In short, the idea is that you can log in and input a full bird list on the system - not just the total, but the complete composition of the list, ideally along with a date and location for each species. The list might represent a Life List covering Great Britain, or a Year List covering an English county such as Norfolk, or a US state such as New Jersey. The location can be anywhere from the entire World down to your own garden or yard - and you can set up new sites or patches yourself. The birder can also record lists representing only self-found or photographed birds, as well as 'bigby' lists. Of course, one of the perennial questions in listing is deciding which species are acceptable to count; to allow flexibility here BUBO Listing is not prescriptive but allows lists based on a number of 'authorities', such as Clements, IOC, AOU, ABA, BOU.
Having entered a list (or lists), you can then obviously view those lists, and update them as you discover new species. However, the added advantage of the system is that you can compare your lists with those of other birders using BUBO Listing. This is not just restricted to a basic comparison of totals; you can look at the detail of anyone else's lists. If you're interested in Fred Blogg's 2007 Northamptonshire Year List, you can go in and look at which species were involved, and where and when they were recorded. It is important to note that BUBO Listing does not vet individual records, comments or claims made: any claim a lister makes is freely available for all other listers to see. We may however contact the lister if an unusual record (or a potentially libellous comment!) is brought to our attention and we believe that an error may have been made.
But BUBO Listing is even more powerful than that. You can also query lists by species. For example, if you wished to find out how many BUBO Listers had seen Siberian Rubythroat in Britain, this would be a few clicks of the mouse away. You could then even see when and where those lucky few had added it to their lists. Similarly, whilst keeping your year list, you might want to keep an eye on your key remaining target species. BUBO Listing makes it possible to see which species you still need to see, but that most of your fellow listers have already got.
BUBO Listing has different aims from other online bird recording systems, such as eBird and BirdTrack - see our comparison of these.
BUBO Listing Development
BUBO Listing has been running since 2007 and is provided free of charge. Costs are incurred for development and hosting however, so if you enjoy BUBO Listing and would like to contribute please use the Paypal donate button on the left. (You don't even need a Paypal account.) BUBO Listing is also (very occasionally!) supported by relevant advertising, and is an affiliate of companies we consider relevant for anyone interested in birds - if you are buying any bird books (or other goods) then we would appreciate it if you could buy them through the BUBO Store so that we receive a small commission!
System Requirements
BUBO Listing requires an Internet browser with Javascript enabled. Recent versions of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Google Chrome are all recommended. Screen resolution should be set to at least 1024 pixels wide.
Photographs
Photos used throughout the BUBO Listing website have been provided mainly by the following photographers:
- Mike Prince
- Andy Musgrove
- Paul Bowerman, www.severnsidebirds.co.uk
- John Martin
In addition many images from Flickr are used. (This product uses the Flickr API but is not endorsed or certified by SmugMug, Inc.) In all cases copyright remains with the original photographer. If you wish to use any of these photos, whether electronically or in print, contact BUBO Listing and we will put you in touch with the particular photographer.
* Not all countries are supported yet. Contact Us if you would like to add a country that we don't yet support.